Their sisters' keeper: Siblings bring additional joy to religious life

From left: Benedictine Srs. Mary Carmel Spayd, Rosemary Dauby, Mary Carmen Spayd and Agnes Marie Dauby talk about what it's like to have a sister at the same convent, the Immaculate Conception Monastery in Ferdinand, Ind. (GSR/Dan Stockman)
From left: Benedictine Srs. Mary Carmel Spayd, Rosemary Dauby, Mary Carmen Spayd and Agnes Marie Dauby talk about what it's like to have a sister at the same convent, the Immaculate Conception Monastery in Ferdinand, Ind. (GSR/Dan Stockman)

by Dan Stockman

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dstockman@ncronline.org

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The Immaculate Conception Monastery, a grand convent that crowns the rolling landscape for miles, is home to about 150 Sisters of St. Benedict. It's also home to four sisters.

To clarify: That's sisters who are also sisters to each other. As in siblings.

Sr. Mary Carmen Spayd and Sr. Mary Carmel Spayd are twins, and Sr. Rosemary Dauby and Sr. Agnes Marie Dauby were born a year apart.

Their blood relation may be interesting -- especially to outsiders -- but what matters, they say, is that they are where God wants them to be.

"You can always have the best-laid plans," Rosemary said, "but that's not always how they work out."

In this area of southern Indiana, the monastery is hard to avoid. It sits on a hill overlooking the town and can be seen miles away. In addition to the convent, once home to nearly 500 women religious, there was a Catholic college and a Catholic girls' high school, all run by the Sisters of St. Benedict. The college closed in 1970, and the girls' academy closed in 2000.

Read the full story at Global Sisters Report.

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